Magia Negra M-66

Ok, so it opens with the obligatory nekkid chick shot, the plot is basically The Terminator, the characterisation, dialogue and voice talent (in the English dubbed version) are just what you'd expect from a 12th grade media project, and the facial expressions are exaggerated Japanese home market stuff (this appears to be a series pilot).

However, this is a pacy little action flick, cleanly animated at an acceptable frame rate, with plenty of scene changes and none of the tedious long pauses or pans across static backgrounds typical of more artsy anime. It just gets on with telling an exciting story without delving into muddled metaphysical ramblings or over-stylised posturing. There are a few moments of genuine tension (spoiled only by the monotonous dubbed wails of Wimpy Female Victim) and in fact some of the English dub dialogue lines are delivered with something approaching real passion, an unusual treat.

Not a film to obsess over or watch 400 times, maybe not even worth a rent, but definitely worth catching on cable.

Black Magic M-66 is an anime based on Masamune Shirows manga of the same name, or to be more precise on the chapter Booby Trap. It was also Shirows first and last time he took a seat in the director's chair, there being so many problems behind the scenes that he refused to have anything to do with the future of the franchise. Luckily he met Mamoru Oshi and the rest is history.

The anime is clearly influenced by James Camerons the Terminator and Aliens. The story is about an seemingly indestructible cyborg on the hunt for some hapless victim. It is a fast paced, short and action packed anime that manages to hold your breath for its complete run of 50 minutes.

The animation is similar to that of Appleseed the ova which was released the following year and which was also based on a Shirow manga. The animation clearly makes it a product of its time, the late eighties early nineties, and are perhaps a notch or two better than that of Appleseed. Nevertheless if you like cyberpunk anime like Appleseed or the first Terminator movie you should give this one a try.

Notice that there are many first in the crew, like Hiroki Hayashi (Bubble Gum Crisis 2040) and Hiroyuki Okiura (Jin-Roh).

This is a real gem, 50 minutes of pure joy and brain-massage, ahhhh.

In a nutshell, it's Terminator gone animated, with a cutesy cast and some great fights with the killer robots - keep your overblown plots and twists which don't make sense, this is what entertainment is all about. Military VS murder machines, what a result! If nothing else, watch this once for those few scenes - some of the best sci-fi combat I've seen on any medium.

Although it's a only a short-film, there's nothing to really go wrong and the pace is so fast that you're too busy enjoying the ride to get nitpicky.

If you like sci-fi anime, Masamune Shirow or wearing a smile then this is headed for your DVD collection.

Black Magic M-66 is about two goverment robots who get released from a plane crash,and the main target is the creators's grand daughter,meaning that if they find the girl they kill her.A journalist gets caught up in the mess and now shes the one thats protecting the girl.One of the droids gets destroyed but the other on gets away.Black Magic M-66 is a great movie to watch,while it delivers a great deal of entertaiment,it suffers from one small flaw,and that flaw is that its only 48 minutes long!It has a good plot,and lots of action,and an outstanding amount of blood.The voice actors did a great job on this.Great story,good animation,and outstanding voiced actors make Black Magic M-66 a great movie to enjoy.

A cyberpunk story written by Masamune Shirow while in college. The comic was published in February 25, 1983, a year and some change before Terminator 1 was released in theaters. It's clear that Masamune's fascination with futuristic technology and bad chicks has been there since the beginning of his career. Black Magic M66 is his freshman project and it shows. The manga is only one volume long and is paced extremely fast, certain things happen in the story that isn't the most logical; but works well to move it along quickly. In its defense, it was most likely never thought to be published while it was being made. The late 70s and 80s had an absurd amount of cyberpunk anime, but Shirow's body of work is the Magnum Opus of the genre. It's worth watching just for its historical place in story telling, if nothing else.